A Hunter is Never Alone
by Someone Who Isn't Me
Summary: A young woman has been thrown into Yharnam on the night of the hunt. She fought, she died, she fought again. She never thought the Hunt would end, but now she finds herself nearing the dawn. In a moment of reflection, she finds herself cooperating with a newer Hunter to delay the final battle for a moment longer.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note:_

 _This will be Chapter 1 of a 3-part story, loosely based on a co-op experience I recently had in the game Bloodborne. It's written from the viewpoint of the character I'm currently playing as, and I've nearly completed my first full playthrough of the game. This is also the first fanfic/story I've written in years, so don't be surprised if the writing is a bit clunky. But hope you enjoy!_

I needed to stop thinking. To get out of my own skin for a while. The chapel didn't feel safe anymore, not after I had returned to find the old woman dead and Arianna missing. I considered returning to the Hunter's Dream, but the doll's sympathy would probably just grate on my nerves right now and I'd be even more alone with my thoughts. After offering the chapel dweller my condolences on the old women and carefully making no mention of Arianna's whereabouts, I stepped outside into the courtyard and rang my Small Resonant Bell. It was a bit of a stretch, really, trying to connect with someone in this area. Most people passing though here were still at an earlier point in their hunt, and it was difficult to connect across time in addition to the effort required to resonate with a parallel universe. But I didn't particularly feel like going anywhere else right now, and I was prepared to wait.

I rang the bell and stowed it away, listening to its continued subsonic vibrations. Then I stared up at the great beast hanging off the wall of the chapel and raised my arms in the universal gesture to make contact. The Amygdala - was it the Great One itself or just one of many? - turned its head to look in my direction, but made no further comment. Did it know I'd killed its leader?

At the correct time, I changed my posture and Amygdala's attention was drawn to me again. I remembered the hastily-scrawled note I'd found in the lecture building and wondered - did Amygdala notice something different about me now?

After some time, I fell into a meditative trance and stopped wondering. When my bell finally resonated, I was caught by surprise and only snapped out of it when my vision went black in preparation for transport.

I reappeared in my beckoner's world and immediately staggered, feeling lightheaded from the sudden shock of dimensional travel. Yes, I'd come quite far tonight. I felt airy and a bit insubstantial, and I realized that I wouldn't be able to take more than a few good hits in this state without dying. Good thing I wasn't planning to. The feeling passed, and I trotted up the steps back into Oedon Chapel. This version of the chapel was empty except for the chapel dweller: there was no old lady, no Skeptical Man, no Adella glaring at me from the shadows.

My beckoner came in through another door and waved to me in greeting. He was a young man, almost as blond as Alfred but much taller and thinner than the mad Executioner. He was wearing basic hunter's garb and carried an axe, which I appreciated. It was one of my favorite weapons as well. "Hey!" I called back. "My name's Demetria. How about you?"

"I'm Sean. Well, I don't know if that's my real name, but..."

"Let me guess," I finished. "You can't remember."

"Yeah, you too then? Wait; are you supposed to be the same as me then? How does this whole cooperation thing work? It's my first time trying."

"We're all in the same boat here, but a hunter is never alone," I replied. I restrained myself from jumping into my latest theory about how my hunter's dream was really just one of the pillars rising out of the white fog in the dreamlands, and all those other pillars in the distance were dreams belonging to other hunters. But, if so, then what sustained them? What united them? "Anyway," I continued, tearing myself away from my thoughts. "What have you been up to tonight?"

"Just got back from Old Yharnam. I finally killed that poison beast!" he exclaimed proudly. "And I pushed that guy off the tower. Serves him right for shooting me so many times."

I winced slightly, thinking of old Djura meeting such an undignified end. But I was glad my beckoner had been to Old Yharnam. It meant he had some appreciation of the scope of the plague and its origins, and he might be stronger than he appeared based on his scarecrow frame and naïve appearance. Anyway, who was I to judge by appearances? I was nothing more than a skinny, rather plain girl myself, still not as strong or as fast as the true veteran hunters, and I'd had trouble even swinging my axe in a straight line before I'd spoken to the doll my first time.

"Can you be my guide through the Cathedral Ward?" my beckoner asked me. "I could probably do it myself, but... I'd appreciate anything to make this night go faster."

"I don't know how much help I'll be with that part," I said wryly. "I'm pretty slow myself. I feel like I've been living and dying in Yharnam for years at this point. But I'll try my best," I pledged.

Sean looked me over, probably trying to decide how useful I would be. I could see him weighing my female figure and small stature against my unusual attire –clearly obtained on some quest he'd not yet undertaken – and the confident way with which I hefted my axe and gun. He seemed to come to a decision, and gestured for me to follow him out the door.

Together, we walked out of the chapel and out into Cathedral Ward. I helped him take out the first few Church wardens, noting that they lacked any eyeballs on their lanterns. This was Sean's world, and everything I saw was filtered through his lack of insight. But I knew the eyeballs were there, and the closer I looked the more I -almost - saw them.

Sean was intimidated at the sight of the first axe-wielding giant; but to the boy's credit he barely showed it. I darted forward to dodge its first swing and then carved at the thing's legs and back until it fell, face-forwards, to block our path forward. Are there a lot of those?" asked Sean as we clambered over the gigantic corpse.

"Unfortunately," I confirmed. "But they're really not that bad if you know what to do."

"I wish they'd just disappear when they died," he grumbled.

"You wouldn't wish that if you'd been to Yahar'gul," I countered, leaving it at that.

We continued onward up the stairs in the plaza, reaching the gate to the round graveyard. "Now, we could go through here." I began, "but first we need to unlock it by -"

I broke off, realizing that he'd found the path on his own and was already preparing to battle against the next Church warden. By the time I got there the warden was dead, and we continued onward into a fog-filled alley. Both of us noted the incense-lit doors around the same time, him with the excitement of discovery and me with a pang of remembrance. I stayed well back as he knocked on the first door and spoke to the house's occupant. The faint sound of her voice made me sick to my stomach, and for a moment I was afraid I would vomit up something that did not belong in this world.

Sean noticed me lurking behind him. "Are you okay?" he asked, watching me lean against a nearby wall for support.

"I'm fine," I managed to say; and then the moment passed. We fought our way up the alleyway, dodging bullets and hacking at demented villagers. There were a few close calls, I'm ashamed to say, when I had to step back from the fray and inject myself with blood from the vials in my pocket. But we made it through, and soon ended up on the steps of the Grand Cathedral, looking up at the guards who awaited our ascent.

"There must be something nasty up there," my beckoner observed wisely. We decided to avoid it -or rather, her - for now, hacking our way through the guards on the stairs but choosing to take a right at the last moment before opening the large double doors. "What's the other way?" Sean asked me.

"That's Hemwick," I said. "We can go there next or if we have trouble here. But this is your night. What do you want to do first?"

In response, he continued down the way we were going. I followed cautiously, deciding not to say anything for now, but I would warn him if we got too close to the Amygdala in the small chapel. Frenzy wasn't a fun experience for anyone, even if it could be rather... educational.

We started walking down some stairs toward a courtyard, and I noticed two small figures lurking below out of the corner of my eye. "Wait a second," I hissed. "Danger down there. How do you want to -"

And again, as before, Sean was already gone. I could tell the boy could be something of a hothead, rushing into a fight without considering the odds. You'd think a few deaths would have cured him of it by now. Cursing softly, I followed him down the rest of the way just as the two hunters reached him. He was swiftly overwhelmed by both of them, but I snuck up behind the one with the rifle spear and cast out my Augur of Ebrietas. The hunter staggered, but I missed the moment to visceral him, so instead I got in a few hits with my axe and darted back before he could reply. Leaving Sean to his own hunter, I lured the first one further and further away. He hit me a few times, opening up a nasty gash on my left arm and whipping me in the side with his weapon's trick form, but I was able to recover and dodge away before getting anything worse. I hit him again with the Augur and swooped in for the visceral this time, relishing the disgusting-but-satisfying feeling of pulling the man's intestines the rest of the way out with my gloved hand. He was somehow still alive afterward, though clearly in no shape to fight, so I finished him off with my axe.

Turning back to Sean, I saw that both he and the other hunter were bleeding heavily onto the pavement, but they still continued to circle each other and occasionally trade blows. I hurried back to join the fight and -stupidly- managed to run straight into a swing from the second hunter's Tonitrus, breaking my already-damaged arm and sending a shock of electricity through my body. My moment of idiocy gave Sean a chance to recover, and then we renewed our assault. With two of us fighting, the enemy hunter was down in no time.

"Well," I gasped, still out of breath from the fight. "Those guys were harder than I remembered."

Sean sat down heavily on the ground and pulled out a blood vial. He'd been shot many times, but with enough blood the bullets would soon work themselves out of his body. I also took a moment to rest and recover, but as soon as my arm stopped aching I was up again and collecting Blood Dregs from the corpses of the hunters we'd killed.

"What are you doing," Sean asked in disgust, watching as I collected the viscous fluid in the empty blood vials I'd just used.

"It's for the queen," I said vaguely, wondering whether he had already spoken with Alfred on his way to Old Yharnam. That man could have had quite an influence on an impressionable lad such as him. "You'll find her later."

Sean shook his head but decided to change the subject. "You're a pretty good fighter," he said. "Especially for someone who can't even see where she's going."

"Whatever do you mean?" I asked innocently, peeking out at him from underneath my unusual headgear. I wore the Cainhurst set, for the most part, but that foppish wig had always annoyed me. I'd initially worn it with the Hunter's cap, but the juxtaposition of fine craftsmanship and tattered leather bothered me until I was able to replace it with the choir cap instead. "I've got eyes on the inside," I said, cringing inwardly even as the words left my mouth. Gods, I sounded like Micolash, that howling idiot I had recently defeated in the nightmare realms. "Just kidding. It's the screen over the front. It's not as opaque as it seems. I can see through it, mostly, I think it just filters out certain frequencies..."

"Can I try it on?"

My first reaction was to refuse. I was protective of my things, and even though his hair looked clean, who knew what kind of lice this guy could have? But then I figured, why not? If I were to die in the next few minutes, the blindfold cap would come back to my own world with me anyway, and there was no harm in letting him just put it on for a moment.

I took off the cap, wincing at how bright and harsh everything looked without it, and handed it to Sean. He took the cap and turned it over in his hands, studying the details of its craftsmanship. He put it on, but immediately took it back off after a few seconds as if the hat made him uncomfortable. "I guess you can see in this thing," he grumbled. "But it's so dim and everything looks weird though it."

"It's like a pair of glasses," I replied, taking back the cap and replacing it upon my own head. "You can't see well in them if they're not your prescription."

"I wish you'd keep it off," he said wistfully. "I barely even got a look at you, but I could see you've got really pretty eyes."

I chuckled a little at his attempt to flirt with me, but his comment made me sad for some reason. I'd seen my own face several times during the Hunt, reflected in dirty mirrors or standing water, and it was generally nothing to write home about. Narrow cheekbones, weak chin, large wide eyes that made me look permanently startled. At least their color was interesting, a kind of green so light that they almost looked yellow when the light hit them a certain way. And my hair wasn't half bad either, a deep rich brown color and a length that would have fallen over my shoulders in waves if I hadn't been keeping it tied up with a bit of string on the night of the Hunt. Really, I wasn't any less attractive than the average person. I just had a deep-seated aversion to compliments - someone, somewhere must have convinced me that they were never true. Had there ever been another person who'd done the opposite? Did I have someone back home who'd tried to break down those walls?

I shared none of this with Sean, just sat there lost in my own thoughts. A few minutes later, both of us had healed enough to go on to the Grand Cathedral.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: I've had some free time the past few days, and I'm trying to avoid thinking about an upcoming event that makes me nervous, so for once I've been writing a lot. All 3 parts of the story are basically done at this point and I may post the third tomorrow or the day after._

 _btw yes I know I've been bending the rules of co-op a little, and that I rushed through the fight with Vicar Amelia... But that fight legit went super quickly in the real co-op this is vaguely based off. I think something happens to Amelia's AI when there are multiple people fighting her? And let's just say that in this version of Bloodborne there isn't really a way to do passwords when you ring the bell, and you don't automatically disappear every time the beckoner beats a boss._

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

"Are you sure you want my help with this?" I asked Sean as he prepared to open the doors of the Grand Cathedral. "You can try her on your own first. I don't want to ruin your fun."

Sean looked at me sadly. "Have you been here so long that this stuff is fun to you? I'm just trying to survive here, so I need as much help as I can get."

I nodded, properly chastised - when _had_ killing beasts become my idea of fun? - and followed him through the doors to Amelia. Together, we watched her as she prayed.

" _Let us pray, let us wish… Let us partake in communion and feast upon the Old Blood..."_

She was a beautiful woman, really, despite the desperation evident in her posture and the tattered state of her clothing. The first time I saw her, I remember wishing I looked like her right up until the moment until she transformed into a hideous beast. Her prayer had echoed in my mind for what felt like days afterward, and now it's an unpleasant shock to hear it again from her lips.

" _Remain wary of the frailty of men. Their wills are weak, minds young... Were it not for fear, death would go unlamented…"_

The Vicar's prayer trailed off as she clutched the golden locket and her breathing grew ragged, echoing through the cathedral.

And then the moment. My hand tightened on the handle of the axe, ready to leap into battle even as Amelia's blood spattered around her. Hit her fast. Hit her before she gets her bearings and realizes what she's become. I pulled a Molotov from my pocket and threw it at her from a distance, causing her to screech angrily at the sudden flames. Behind me, Sean yelled a war cry as he charged into battle. Whatever happened to this not being fun?

I closed the rest of the distance between myself and Amelia, dodging her frantic swipes and jumping back as she pounded at the ground. After a few hits to her side with a blood gem-infused Hunter's Axe, Amelia decided she didn't like that and started slowly backing away into a corner. Sean and I drove her back further, until she crouched down and howled in agony, our constant barrage of blows not allowing her enough time to heal herself or retaliate. She got Sean once with her claws, and briefly knocked me down with the side of an antler, but for the most part we were able to keep her down quite satisfactorily. I almost felt bad for Amelia, robbed of the fight she deserved, but I told myself that this was a faster and more merciful death.

Afterward, when she lay dead on the ground, Sean flicked some blood off his coat and remarked, "Huh, that wasn't too hard for once."

Something about hearing that comment rather than being thanked for my help annoyed me, and I blurted; "I died to her. At least ten times, and it hurt every time. This fight was Amelia when she's scared. You don't know what she's like when you're alone and don't have any backup to save your ass."

"Geez, sorry," Sean said defensively. I rarely got angry, and this was definitely the first time he'd seen it. "I didn't realize. Thanks for your help."

I nodded in acknowledgement, more or less accepting his apology. I generally felt better somehow after the battle with Amelia, even though it made no sense for my guilt about killing one person to be eased by killing another. "So shall we call it good then? Or do you want to go further?"

He looked at me like I was crazy. "Of course, we should go on together! We can be partners in the hunt!"

"I'd love to," I said carefully, wondering what would be the best way to let him down gently. "But look at me. That blue glow around me. I'm not really here, you know, and sooner or later I'll have to go back to my own world. You could always ring again, but there's no guarantee we'll resonate even if we think the same thoughts very hard. And it consumes insight, have you noticed that?"

He looked up sharply, as if gazing at the ceiling of the cathedral or the inside of his own skull. "I guess it does," he said slowly. "I can ring you a few more times, but I've gotta save some so I can talk to the doll. Is the doll the same in your world? Like, is yours a guy, or..."

I involuntarily blushed at what he was implying. "What kind of relationship do you have with your doll? "I asked him. "Wait, no. Don't tell me. I don't want to know."

Now it was his turn to blush furiously. "It's not like that, I swear! She was just praying at the gravestone this one time, and then she said she loves me..."

I just shook my head at him, laughing a little. I was glad Sean was easily distractible and the building tension had been defused so easily. "I bet she says that to everyone. Anyways, onward to Hemwick for now?"

"One second," he said. "I have to spend my echoes at the Hunter's Dream."

"Yeah, better unload those while you can," I agreed. Sean lit the nearby lamp, then knelt at it and slowly faded from view. I waited for him in the cathedral, my hand in my pocket nervously fingering the silencing blank in case I'd have to slot it into my pistol and fire. I'd never been with a cooperator when he'd returned to the Dream before, and I was prepared to return to my own world if anything went sideways.

Sean reappeared a minute later, his clothes free of blood and a new spring back in his step. "Look at this," he exclaimed. "I got a new sword, isn't it amazing?"

He brandished a Ludwig's Holy Blade, then started jabbing and feinting at thin air to test its moves. I watched him, clapping politely when he executed a particularly difficult looking combination. I'd briefly tried the same blade myself at one point, but it had soon become clear that I had no talent for swordplay. Sean, on the other hand, was already halfway decent after five minutes with the thing. Maybe he'd had some kind of training in whatever life he'd had back before the hunt began.

"All right," he said a while later when he'd properly gotten a feel for the weapon. "Let's go to Hemwick."


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: Final part of this story! Review if you like it :)_

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

The road to Hemwick was a long one, filled with dogs and gun-toting villagers. The transitory area in the graveyard gave me flashbacks to the time I got lost in the forbidden woods - I had to call a cooperator to lead me out, but her "shortcut" led to us running into the Shadows of Yharnam - but we found our way out soon enough. Sean bounded over to the lamp and lit it with an expression of visible relief on his face. He hadn't amassed enough echoes to return to the Dream yet, so we continued onward into Hemwick proper.

I threw myself upon the witches dancing in the clearing, taking them out before Sean even knew what was happening. He was better with the next group, putting down the witch and the dog coming down a stairway while I darted ahead and killed another witch throwing Molotovs. We'd begun to work together better as a team by this point, our blades flashing in a synchronized dance of death. At the Cainhurst crossroads, a troll-like Executioner grabbed me and slit my throat with his blade, but Sean covered me excellently for the moment my life was flashing before my eyes.

"Damn," he commented as I steadied myself and stood up on shaking legs. "That's a lot of blood. For me it'd mean a trip back to the Dream for sure."

I shrugged and gave him a thumbs up, still unable to speak for the moment but otherwise feeling well enough to continue. In retrospect, I was still a bit dizzy, and probably should have waited longer. But I'd long ago run out of patience for these sorts of things, sick of just sitting there while my flesh knitted itself back together. So Sean and I crossed a bridge and entered a dark hut, climbing up a rickety ladder to the roof. This was a tricky part. The roof was narrow, and we'd have to sidle along a ledge for a while to get to the other side. What's more, the drop off the side of the roof was more like a cliff, descending into mist and nothingness toward the lake. We sidled around a corner to cross the narrower part of the roof, and suddenly alarm bells went off in my mind. There was something here, up ahead, that had killed me once, but I couldn't remember…

"Wait," I said, but my voice was still hoarse and far too quiet. Sean didn't hear me, or maybe wasn't listening, but he took another step forward. Just then, a tall unpleasant-looking old woman leaned out from around a corner and struck him over the head with a huge wooden mallet. He staggered, and I ran to cover him, but the roof was narrow and the old witch was too fast for me. She hit him again before he'd even recovered properly from the first blow, and Sean went over the edge.

I smashed the witch with my Tonitrus, not even checking to see if she was dead, and crouched down to peer over the edge. I couldn't see where Sean had gone, but the fall did not look to be survivable. Damn it! My faulty memory had gotten him killed, and the knowledge that it was not permanent didn't do much to make me feel that much better. Even if he woke up again in the Dream, I'd probably never connect with him ever again. I sank down to my knees on the ledge and hissed in frustration, waiting for the inevitable moment of disconnection from this world. But it didn't come. And didn't come. And still didn't -

"Hey!" a voice called faintly. "I'm down here!"

I looked down again, but still couldn't see him. Then I remembered - there was an old, half-broken bridge somewhere down there, wasn't there? I remembered going there and seeing an odd mark carved into its wood, a rune I didn't learn the significance of until I beat the Witches of Hemlock and found Caryll's corpse in their basement. But how had Sean managed to get all the way down there, and how in Yharnam was he still alive?

I ran back down into the house and slid down the ladder, exiting the way I came. I had to backtrack around the house to get to the bridge, but finally I reached him. Both of Sean's legs appeared to be broken, but other than that he didn't seem in any immediate danger of dying. "I'm out of blood vials," he said sheepishly, grimacing in pain as he tried to move. "Can you lend me one?"

"It's not exactly lending if you can't give it back," I grumbled, but it was already in my hand by the time he'd asked. I sat down on the wooden planks next to him and distracted him with the story of Caryll runes while his legs healed, and that only increased his anticipation about fighting the witches in order to get the workshop tool for himself.

From bridge, we turned a few corners and climbed a steep hill, mowing through the assorted old women and executioners that blocked our path. "Just hit the small ones," I instructed as we walked into the Witches' domain. "As much as possible, try to ignore the things they summon."

Sean nodded and crossed the invisible threshold into the room. I followed, glancing around warily to see where the first witch would appear.

There! Off to the left, a darting orb of red light. I got a hit in on the witch before she even fully materialized, slamming my axe down so hard that the wooden floorboards splintered underneath. The witch disappeared, but not before she managed to summon a Mad One on the other side of the room.

" _Ignore_ them?" Sean yelped as a sickle swung over his head. "Are you crazy? This thing's gonna kill me!" Instead of running, he wasted precious seconds hacking the Mad One to pieces while I tracked the real witch up the stairs to a raised platform. Her next few manifestations were easy to eliminate, but it wasn't until I managed to kill her that the real fight began.

A second witch appeared in the room, resurrecting her friend with a single wave of a hand in her direction. Now that there were two of them, the witches were fighting at their full potential. They didn't hesitate to use magic, driving us away from them with explosions and sending loops of arcane energy to trap us while the Mad Ones did their dirty work.

At some point during the fight, Sean and I got separated, and I realized I hadn't seen him in nearly a minute. I darted around the room in a circuit, searching all the dark corners and stairwells. I found Sean in a corner of the room, held in the grasp of a containment spell cast by one of the witches. He thrashed around wildly, trying to slip out of its grasp, but the glowing blue lasso only tightened around him. That by itself wouldn't have been too bad, but all three Mad Ones in the room were drawn toward the sight of his struggle.

I sprinted toward him, extended poleaxe at the ready. I got there just as all the Mad Ones sliced at him simultaneously, tearing him open in a dozen places. The spell ended and Sean collapsed to the floor, easy prey for the evil spirits.

I approached from the back and sliced sideways with my axe, staggering all three Mad Ones with a single hit. I darted backwards, enticing them to leave Sean alone and follow me toward the center of the room. Another sideswipe, and the one closest to my axe dissolved into dust. The other two went for me, but I executed a neat little combo that ended by stabbing the spike at the tip of my axe straight through the torso of the closest enemy.

Sean was staggering to his feet at the edge of the room, swinging his sword drunkenly and missing the witch with every other swipe. I shoved him out of the way just before the witch shot out a blast of arcane magic. "You. Stay. Heal." I barked at him, throwing a few blood vials in his direction in case he was still low on supplies. Then I was off again, on the trail of the Witch's latest appearance.

This fight was a constant game of cat and mouse, and it was easy to run yourself ragged and make a stupid mistake from the sheer duration of it. I dodged the containment spell several times, then managed to get caught in one in a corner of the room. Luckily, the Mad Ones were all occupied chasing Sean at the moment, so I got out without any issues. I barely even noticed when the one of the witches fell for the final time, though some part of me acknowledged that the fight had suddenly gotten easier.

Then I realized that there was only one witch left, and Sean and I both converged on her at the same moment. Sean was the one to strike the final blow, and I had to be the one to rein him in when he kept stabbing her several times afterward. "You can stop now," I told him, placing a bloody gloved hand on his shoulder. "The fight is over, so stop before you turn into Gascoigne."

He flinched at the name of the beast-turned Hunter, then came out of his blood haze and looked down at me gratefully. "I'm telling you thanks this time. You really deserve it, I would've died like ten different times without you."

"It's no problem, really," I said bashfully. "I kind of like this fight, actually. One of my favorite ways to die in Yharnam."

Sean looked startled for a second until he realized I was joking. "I just never know with you," he said, shaking his head affectionately. "How much you're really crazy and how much you're just pretending."

I started to reply, but suddenly stopped short when I felt a familiar tingling sensation in my fingertips. It spread from the extremities, traveling up my arms and legs toward the core of my body.

"Sean," I said sharply, and the smile wiped itself off his face with the sudden tone of my voice. "I'm going."

"Damn!" He swore. "Why now? I only just met you! We could've gone into the Forest next, I think I've got the password now. Or we could look for more runes together. Or -" he suddenly grabbed my hand, which by this time had gone completely numb. "Think about me," he whispered urgently. "Ring again and think really hard."

 _Don't wait for me,_ I wanted to say. _The odds are so low that we would ever manage to find each other. I'll awaken by Oedon Chapel, and you'll still be in Hemwick..._

"I'll be okay, just finish your hunt," I managed to say as my body began to fade out completely. "But remember, you're never alone."

Right before my vision went, I saw Sean standing there looking hurt and bewildered, his hands clutching at the empty air where his first-ever cooperator had stood.

As expected, I awakened in Oedon Chapel under the gaze of the Amygdala overhead.

"What are _you_ looking at," I asked it nastily before stepping back into the chapel. I knelt at the lamp and felt my body dissolve once again, this time reconstituting itself in the Hunter's dream. I took a single deep breath of the garden's fresh dewy scent but did not linger further, instead stepping over to the next gravestone and warping directly into the Witch's Abode in Hemwick.

In Sean's world, the corpses of the witches would be fresh and their torches still burning. In mine the room was dark, and the Witches lay in a corner being nibbled upon by rats. I lit my hand lantern and stepped back into the entryway, mindful of the way the bells only worked in certain locations.

I rang my small resonant bell and stepped into the contact position again, just for luck. I tried to remember Sean's face, his shaggy blonde hair, the way he smiled when I'd said something I hadn't meant to be funny. But the details of his appearance were already escaping me, fading back into the fog of dozens of cooperators I had met during this endless night. I berated myself for letting one random Hunter affect me so much more than the others. Was it was because I was with him longer than average, or because he was new and I felt protective? Maybe he reminded me of someone; someone I had known in my life before...

I meditated for a while longer, periodically shifting positions as the bell continued to ring. My arms started to ache from holding them up so long, and every little sound became amplified in the silence of the room. The wind blowing, the rats scurrying, the baby crying... No, that one wasn't real, I reminded myself. I'd been hearing it off and on since Rom, but there was no baby here.

And yet, the sound continued to grow louder. The wailing was angry, insistent somehow. It tugged at a half-forgotten instinct inside me, one that made me wonder if I could perhaps be a mother despite my young age. I had an ear for babies, certainly. This one was hungry, lonely, desperate for attention. It had been crying for a very long time.

"All right, I'm coming," I muttered, mentally preparing myself for what would likely be a gruesome task at hand. Whatever it was, I knew I would eventually handle it. The final shred of my heart had been hollowed out by this damn Hunt, replaced by something cold and slick that writhed in my chest cavity. It called out toward the lonely infant across space and time, leading me toward my final destination.

I silenced my bell and kneeled at the lamp once more. I was ready.


End file.
